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There's a scary warning that you are doing something unsupported and if you press the wrong key, whatever is installed will be wiped and the default OS restored

There's a scary warning that you are doing something unsupported and if you press the wrong key, whatever is installed will be wiped and the default OS restored. I think there's more desire and utility the other way around-- old general purpose laptops make pretty good Chromebooks (by using Neverware's Cloudready, no also owned by Google), but there's not much demand for turning eight old Chromebooks into general purpose computers. I have such an old Chromebook. I bought it for about $130. It has a mediocre keyboard and an 11" lower-quality TN display. Now it doesn't get OS updates. Current eBay price is $20.

wffurr 5y ago
They really ought to ditch the unsigned boot warning on EOL hardware, so that it can be repurposed with Ubuntu or Cloudready or what-have-you.
- sundarurfriend 5y ago
  But they won't because it's much more profitable if the user buys new hardware instead, nevermind whether the existing device is fundamentally capable of serving their needs, and nevermind the accumulating e-waste. It's a hopeful sign that OP's parents are at least catching on to the planned obsolescence pattern. That makes it easier to explain the importance of right-to-repair type regulations to a non-technical audience.